Movie Review for Golden Door

Summary: The turn-of-the-century voyage of a poor family from rural Sicily through the "golden door" of Ellis Island and into America. On a perilous steamship journey from his Sicilian village, the widower Salvatore Mancuso encounters a ravishing, mystery-shrouded Englishwoman, Lucy, Amid a harrowing crossing, an unexpected love story unfolds all the way to the halls of Ellis Island, where both Salvatore and Lucy will stop at nothing to make it to the America of theirimaginations.

                         Reviews of Golden Door
By Phil Villarreal of Arizona Daily Star (7/0)
            So enjoyable and visually stimulating is the experience, it's tough to knock Crialese's Door.

By Marc Savlov of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
            Despite the hardships depicted, Golden Door is a sweet film at heart, playing witness to the birt...

By Wesley Morris of Boston Globe (7/0)
            It's so hypnotically breathtaking, you don't realize you're not breathing. By the final shot, you...

By Steve Watson of Channel 4 Film (7/0)
            A wonderfully poetic film offering a fresh perspective on America's early immigrants, Golden Door...

By Michael Wilmington of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            An often lyrical and moving movie.

By Michael Wilmington of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            ...an often lyrical and moving movie...

                         Reviews of Golden Door
By Tom Robey of Daily Telegraph (7/0)
            Except during the pointed and crisply staged scenes of testing and quarantine, his movie feels th...

By Brian Orndorf of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            It remains an extraordinarily strong, fascinating look at the genesis of the traditional immigran...

By Rob Bennett of Empire Magazine (7/0)
            Tedious and bland - entry denied!

By Gregory Kirschling of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            ...a sluggish procedural on what it was like to make the journey to Ellis Island back in the day.

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            The whole picture, real and surreal, is hauntingly beautiful.

By Daniel Eagan of Film Journal International (7/0)
            It's easier to respect Crialese's accomplishments than understand his characters.

                         Reviews of Golden Door
By Kent Turner of Film-Forward.com (7/0)
            Emanuele Crialese makes the star of his new film his director of photography, Agnes Godard.

By Liam Lacey of Globe and Mail (7/0)
            Unfolding like a gorgeous coffee-table book of photographs, Emanuele Crialese's film Golden Door ...

By Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews (7/0)
            All too successful in evoking the simple-mindedness of its immigrant naifs and the interminabilit...

By Peter Bradshaw of Guardian [UK] (7/0)
            His excellent new film gives us the fierceness without the syrup: a solidly constructed film with...

By Sura Wood of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            A reimagined immigrant story without weight, sense of risk or the Statue of Liberty.

By Bruce Westbrook of Houston Chronicle (7/0)
            Its minutiae don't bring a lump in the throat -- just a drumming of the fingers.

                         Reviews of Golden Door
By Anthony Quinn of Independent (7/0)
            The details of this chaotic odyssey to the New World are so intricately and poignantly handled th...

By Jim Slotek of Jam! Movies (7/0)
            Darkly painted, but loaded with humour and ultimately sweetly optimistic.

By Bob Strauss of Los Angeles Daily News (7/0)
            Tired, poor journey to Golden Door.

By Carina Chocano of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            [A] beautiful, spacey, trans-oceanic odyssey.

By Duane Dudek of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
            [Director] Crialese's talent for poetic illusion, and for finding the general within the microcos...

By Ted Murphy of Murphy's Movie Reviews (7/0)
            There's a certain remoteness to the story that might keep some members of the audience at bay.

                         Reviews of Golden Door
By Jack Mathews of New York Daily News (7/0)
            The movie never really comes alive, and [director] Crialese's coyness with Lucy's character is mo...

By V.A. Musetto of New York Post (7/0)
            The acting is superb...

By A. O. Scott of New York Times (7/0)
            ...(a) beautiful dream of a film...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            Rather like a sociological document narrated in a flamboyantly rhapsodic visual style...more affe...

By Scott Tobias of Onion AV Club (7/0)
            It excels at documenting the humiliating (and sometimes terrifying) physical and mental tests tha...

By John Thomason of Orlando Weekly (7/0)
            Thanks to the director’s own mix of fantasy and social commentary, there’s nothing quite like Gol...

                         Reviews of Golden Door
By Steven Rea of Philadelphia Inquirer (7/0)
            There's an old Zen saying, 'It's the journey, not the destination.' The Golden Door offers an ext...

By Cynthia Fuchs of PopMatters (7/0)
            Emanuele Crialese's wondrous Nuovomondo (Golden Door) recalls America's erstwhile promise with a ...

By Jim Hemphill of Reel.com (7/0)
            Beautifully made but simple-minded Oscar bait, a film guaranteed to offend no one and to attract ...

By Jim Lane of Sacramento News & Review (7/0)
            Cinematographer Agnes Godard's camera caresses every moment...

By Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com (7/0)
            A defiantly idiosyncratic film that summons the spirits of great Italian directors long past.

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (7/0)
            [Crialese's] gorgeous, evocative images... are housed, like a great exhibit in a museum with over...

                         Reviews of Golden Door
By Larry Ratliff of San Antonio Express-News (7/0)
            Golden Door belongs to(Vincenzo) Amato (Respiro). He makes this tale of woe and wonderment the ch...

By Sean Axmaker of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            ...sublime...

By Moira MacDonald of Seattle Times (7/0)
            [Director] Crialese ends his film on an exquisite note of fantasy: an indelible image of hope and...

By Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            Hung up on the nature of procedure, the film transpires in very distinct, hellish parts, as if mo...

By Derek Malcolm of This is London (7/0)
            The film is touching, imaginative and makes the best of its cash through a minimalist skill that ...

By David Fear of Time Out New York (7/0)
            Can someone please call for a moratorium on gratuitous magical realism?

                         Reviews of Golden Door
By Wendy Ide of Times [UK] (7/0)
            Gorgeous to look at, unfashionably optimistic and quirkily seductive, this is a robust joy of a m...

By Rob Salem of Toronto Star (7/0)
            I've got to be honest here. In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that I was not ent...

By Ken Fox of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
            An enlightening, historically accurate look at what the ancestors of many Americans went through....

By Jay Weissberg of Variety (7/0)
            An imaginative, intelligent and attractive Italo pic precisely when the country needs it most.

By Jean Opppenheimer of Village Voice (7/0)
            Emanuele Crialese's poetic tale of emigration at the turn of the 20th century follows an illitera...

By Joe Morgenstern of Wall Street Journal (7/0)
            After countless films in which immigration plays a central role you'd think the canon was essenti...

                         Reviews of Golden Door
By Ann Hornaday of Washington Post (7/0)
            Italian director Emanuele Crialese has infused the age-old plot with dazzling visual style, dollo...

By Prairie Miller of WBAI Web Radio (7/0)
            A cinematic treasure, dipped in the delights of magical realism and the enchanting dual conscious...

By Jay Antani of Boxoffice Magazine (6/1) No reference
            Golden Door resounds with moments of pure cinema seldom encountered anymore, where sound and imag...

By J. R. Jones of Chicago Reader (3/4) No reference
            The folkloric tone that seemed so pretentious in [Respiro] is powerfully effective here.

By Teresa Budasi of Chicago Sun-Times (6/1) No reference
            ...the strength lies in the detail work rather than the larger brushstrokes of a family's immigra...

By Terry Lawson of Detroit Free Press (6/1) No reference
            Turns an old story into something completely new.

                         Reviews of Golden Door
By Loey Lockerby of Kansas City Star (3/4) No reference
            Although it has a gorgeous, lyrical visual style, it contains no stirring speeches or sentimental...

By Colin Covert of Minneapolis Star Tribune (3/4) No reference
            Writer/director Emanuel Crialese gives his atmospheric film a look of daguerreotype authenticity.

By A. O. Scott of New York Times (3/4) No reference
            What makes Mr. Crialese’s telling unusual, apart from the gorgeousness of his wide-screen composi...

By Stephen Whitty of Newark Star-Ledger (3/4) No reference
            A modest film, both in its aims and the emotions it solicits.

By Shawn Levy of Oregonian (6/1) No reference
            Images on a movie screen can either show the truth literally or evoke it emotionally. The Golden ...

By Rich Cline of Shadows on the Wall (6/1) No reference
            A powerful look at the quirks of human nature, weaving in a subtle but overwhelmingly powerful po...

                         Reviews of Golden Door
By Phoebe Flowers of South Florida Sun-Sentinel (6/1) No reference
            There's a big difference between slowly unfurling a difficult story so that it rewards a patient ...

By Jamie Russell of Total Film (3/4) No reference
            Making the most of an evidently limited budget, Crialese makes the Promised Land seem as poignant...

By Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun (3/4) Not Reachable
            At its best, The Golden Door generates the excitement to be had whenever a historical movie achie...

By Lawrence Toppman of Charlotte Observer (6/1) Not Reachable
            [Director] Crialese establishes moods beautifully, whether in surreal visions (such as Salvatore ...

By Boyd van Hoeij of europeanfilms.net (6/1) Not Reachable
            Proof of the director's unwillingness to improve on the scattershot ideas and shaky character dev...

By Peter Debruge of Miami Herald (6/1) Not Reachable
            Director Emanuele Crialese passes no judgments, capturing the mundane and miraculous alike.

Movie Distributors
Miramax Films

Production Companies
Titti Films
Arte France Cinema
Respiro
Memento Films

Movie Studios